"If I had a better job that was paying more and I still could provide food and shelter for my son, it would have been better. But it couldn't happen with the minimum wage and working at McDonald's," said Lisa Powell, former McDonald's employee.

Powell said she had to quit her job at McDonald's after one year because the pay was not enough.

She was being paid $7.25, the national minimum wage.

To get by, she said she needed food stamps to help buy food for her and her son.

Most of the money she earned at work was spent on getting from Binghamton, where she lives, to Vestal, where she worked at McDonald's.

Protesters said the minimum wage should be raised with the current proposal to cut $40 billion to the food stamp program.